Monkey, Black Howler

Alouatta caraya

Male and female black howler monkeys are colored quite differently. Mature males are black, while the young and females are blonde. This difference between male and female is called sexual dimorphism. Males are also larger than females, weighing about 16.5 pounds as opposed to females at 12.5 pounds.

Diet

Howler monkeys are slow moving, thus easily falling prey to humans, who hunt them for meat. Most of their time is spent in trees. They live in groups of 8 to 20, with females outnumbering males. There is one dominant male per group. They do not groom each other, and this could account for the high incidence of disease among them.

Breeding takes place throughout the year, yielding one offspring. The mother has complete control of the young.